Ministry - In Case You Didn't Feel Like Showing Up (Live) (1990)Release ID: 1586
There are some industrial metal bands that are better off as studio-only, whether by their own choice or by fan demand, mainly due to heavy usage of electronics and samples as opposed to metal instruments. The band performed at Holiday Star Theatre in early 1990 and recorded it for a live album... In Case You Didn't Feel Like Showing Up! The performance has actually enhanced some songs better than in the studio versions. I'll review the video edition of this album for a more complete experience...
The CD version consists of 6 songs from the albums The Land of Rape and Honey and The Mind is a Terrible Thing to Taste, 3 songs per album. They selected some of the best songs from both albums, with some of them having good improvement.
Only present in the video edition, "Breathe" has the Jourgensen-sung madness of its original album's first two tracks, this time deliberately more intense! It takes your head off and slam-dunks it back between your d*mn shoulders, caused by driving drums and vocals repeatedly telling you to "BREATHE!!! ...YOU F***ER!!" Then the song tears your head off again like a fish in the kitchen. One of the best here! The keyboard-guitar hybrid riffing rolls in "The Missing", which is mid-paced and can deliberately force your head into a different place. "Deity" is a roaring Metallica-like thrash tune as the drums and riff thunder around.
"So What" is extended from 8 minutes to a massive 11 minutes here, but it's more than an epic, it's an anthem with harmonic guitars and catchy bass as Jourgensen declares, "So what!? it's your own problem to learn to live with. Destroy us! Or make us saints!! WE DON'T CARE!!! IT'S NOT OUR FAULT THAT WE WERE BORN TOO LATE!!!!" This song of the generation's apathy will get you screaming/singing along to an anthem that's unlike any other. After an ambient intro, "Burning Inside" kicks in a propulsive beat and repetitive guitar to keep you awake. This pounding tune is helped out by the vocals. When I wrote this review after waking up this morning, this song fired me up way more than coffee! "Thieves" starts with a hyper guitar riff over a dance beat, then the verse has Al Jourgensen's distorted screams of "THIEVES AND LIARS!! MURDERERS!!! HYPOCRITES AND B****RDS!!!!" Then the chorus stops for a stretched guitar chord until one more scream of "THIEVES!!! LIARS!!!" Then the drums go full-on thrash, but they should've used real drums instead of programming in the original studio version. I'm guessing they couldn't find any drummers going that fast.
One of the best tunes displayed here is "Stigmata" with its fuzzy keyboard riffing. Al would enter the scene with a howl of maximum distortion. The riff and beat drives the song through well. This is where the CD edition ends, but in the video edition, it is followed by Jello Biafra of Dead Kennedys and Ministry side-project Lard reciting a parody of the Pledge of Allegiance. He would later be sucking his thumb and Nazi saluting during the final encore. The title track of the Land of Rape of Honey is a menacing crawler, standing out with its creepy vibe.
It's quite great hearing the songs from The Land of Rape of Honey get the heavier live treatment to suit the band's expanding metal sound. On the other hand, in the songs from The Mind is a Terrible Thing to Taste, there more weight in the groove rather than tightness. Both separate aspects combined, they foreshadow the sound in their later albums becoming more metallic. Ministry made a great performance showcasing the songs from their late 80s metal era. Not the best live album I've heard, but quite a memorable one in industrial metal....
Favorites (two per studio album): "Breathe", "Burning Inside", "Stigmata", "The Land of Rape and Honey"
